08-09 FA Cup Semifinal Draw – Rigged or Luck?

By on March 9th, 2009

The FA Cup ‘draw’ is supposed to be fair (your mileage may vary) but there are times when the ties end up looking completely rigged (by man or a God with a sense of humour, that’s for you to decide).

And so it is with Manchester United being drawn against Everton, leaving Chelsea to face Arsenal and setting up a potentially classic FA Cup final with Manchester United (yes, I’m going to say it) chasing the quadruple and a re-match of the 2007 or 2005 FA Cup finals, both that United ended up losing against teams they had bettered on the day.

Gooch asked Botham ‘who writes your scripts?’, but he knew and United know that the best always end up writing their own scripts, and the semi-finals are United’s chance to move one step closer to making history.

On the other side, Arsenal will lock horns with Chelsea. Both teams are pushing for league ‘respectability’ but given that they’ve got a better shot at winning the FA Cup than the Champions League, this will be an excellent semi-final to watch.

2008/2009 FA Cup Semifinal draw

Ties to be played at Wembley on Saturday/Sunday, 18/19 April.

Manchester United v Everton
Chelsea v Arsenal

Predictions:

United to beat Everton
Arsenal to beat Chelsea
United to beat Arsenal

Topics: Arsenal, Chelsea, English Premier League, Everton, FA Cup, Hull City, Manchester United

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One Comment

  1. bruno nardi

    I expected an assignment of the matches in South Africa only based based on a numerical draw which would match the 32 teams .
    In a simple numerical draw the seeded teams of pot-1 would have had the opportunity to play themselves and possibly be eliminated.
    In this case FIFA made the tournament for the 32 teams like eight cages with a wolf and three chickens in each cage.
    Odds are that the wolves would prevail on the chickens therefore increasing the overall possibility that the world cup would and the $30 millions prize will be remaining among the “historical” strong seeded teams of Pot-1.
    To favor the historical European teams and Brazil at the expenses of all others is a scam.
    The world cup 2010 draw was rigged because some end-results were statistically predetermined.
    Regretfully,
    Nardi Bruno

    December 5th, 2009 @ 14:07